Pulaski is killed, October 11, 1779
The Polish aristocrat Kazimierz Pulaski was a fighting soldier, a skilled horseman who earned great respect for leading cavalry into battle. Congress appointed him brigadier general in charge of the Continental Army’s four horse regiments. “The Father of the American Cavalry,” as he became known, created the country’s first trained cavalry corps, the Pulaski Legion. During the Siege of Savannah, Pulaski is struck by grapeshot while leading a full-scale charge into British fortifications. Pulaski becomes one of the few European officers to lose his life in the American Revolution.